Oregon Early Childhood Linkages Project
"Community schools provide that kind of mechanism for ensuring that there's continuity between the nonschool and the school years." May Cha, Project Coordinator
Multnomah, OR
The Oregon Early Childhood and Community School Linkages Project is a partnership of the Multnomah County School Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) Service System and the Oregon Commission on Children and Families. The Linkages Project focuses on three sites to strengthen the bridge between early childhood efforts and community school strategies. Linkages promotes school readiness and success by connecting Oregon's community schools model to its early childhood system of supports.
The Linkages Project brings together key stakeholders as partners in building continuity and supports across early childhood and into the early grades. The project focuses on Multnomah County, initially, due to the success of the SUN Community Schools strategy in this county. The broader goal is to expand the effort statewide to both urban and rural areas of Oregon. The Project currently focuses on three demonstration school sites, two
SUN Community Schools in Multnomah County, and one emerging Community School in the rural tribal community of the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians in Lincoln County.
To learn more about the Linkages Project in Multnomah please look at the resources below.
Resources
This document summarizes Multnomah County’s process to create early childhood – school linkages through community schools and how partnerships.. It also lays out the goals and lessons learned from Year 1 of operation.
This document outlines Oregon’s plan to improve family engagement and regular attendance in schools.
Mickey Lansing, Executive Director of Oregon Commission on Children and Families, outlines the work that has been accomplished as a result of the Linkages Project. She notes that Oregon has made "great progress in the last several biennia in improving the linkages between schools, communities, and supports for children and families".
May Cha the Project Coordinator of the Linkages Project shares her insights about the Linkages Project in Multnomah County. The interview highlights the purpose of the Linkages Project in Multnomah, the role of different partnerships, the administrative structure and how they collect data.
A report looking into the progress made through the Linkages Project in Multnomah